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MrBlack wrote:The IDW comics really don't incorporate much from the Bay movies, except for the fact that Cybertron was rendered uninhabitable by the war (emphasis on "was"). The designs and personalities are straight out of Gen 1, albeit more the Marvel comics than the cartoon. The number of deaths are characteristic of the Marvel comic as well, although there have not been nearly as many MAJOR deaths so far (two big deaths were subsequently reversed, and given where RID is heading, a few more may be as well). The first ongoing took some story elements from the movie, but thankfully we're past that now.

I saw that and have always disliked it. Also, not a big fan of deaths as I feel it's always a waste of a good character and more motivated by the writer disliking the character. I was happy to see Ultra Magnus come back. Gee Highlander Transformers.

For designs, Rodimus has gone through a ton of them so far. Bit annoying. But I love the newer designs for Megatron.

Another thing that annoys me about these comics - Arcee and the female Transformers...

Just give us girl bots. Made for a great analogy to humanity.

"Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They're scientific instruments, not water pistols.""Oh, the pointing again! They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?""Are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about?"""Timey" what? "Timey wimey"?"

IvCNuB4 wrote:The Old Doctor is Cat-Scratch ?Well that explains a lot :lol:

BubbaKanoosh wrote:Old Doctor is the NuDCU's Catscratch

io9 wrote:What We Learned From Obsessively Studying The New Suicide Squad Footage - Toronto is a dark and dangerous place, full of menace.

MrBlack wrote:He's a comic book villain. Their plans are always stupid.

Why do I think you just caused Zechs to do a spit-take?

"Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They're scientific instruments, not water pistols.""Oh, the pointing again! They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?""Are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about?"""Timey" what? "Timey wimey"?"

IvCNuB4 wrote:The Old Doctor is Cat-Scratch ?Well that explains a lot :lol:

BubbaKanoosh wrote:Old Doctor is the NuDCU's Catscratch

io9 wrote:What We Learned From Obsessively Studying The New Suicide Squad Footage - Toronto is a dark and dangerous place, full of menace.

Cat-Scratch wrote:I saw that and have always disliked it. Also, not a big fan of deaths as I feel it's always a waste of a good character and more motivated by the writer disliking the character. I was happy to see Ultra Magnus come back. Gee Highlander Transformers.

For designs, Rodimus has gone through a ton of them so far. Bit annoying. But I love the newer designs for Megatron.

Another thing that annoys me about these comics - Arcee and the female Transformers...

Just give us girl bots. Made for a great analogy to humanity.

Well, the "Cybertron is uninhabitable" bit is behind us now in any event. It was useful to get the characters to Earth in the first place, but I'm enjoying the stories much more now that they're space-focused.

I wouldn't say the deaths are motivated by a writer disliking a character. I wouldn't say John Barber disliked Wheeljack given how much he used the character in RiD. Most of the other deaths so far have been Z-list cannon-fodder who never had much of a personality anyway (is anyone really upset that Triggerhappy is dead? Pipes?). In any event, these are the Transformers we're talking about: a good coat of paint and you can fix almost anyone. Two of the major deaths in the IDW-verse, Sunstreaker and Ironhide, have already been reversed, and the coming story involving Shockwave promises to reverse a few more deaths.

I like Arcee. Female Cybertronians make no sense given that the whole race is genderless anyway. Arcee being one of Jhiaxus' freak experiments is a good in-continuity explanation for her existence, and I like her much more as a psychotic killing machine versus a useless wallflower.

On a related note, the Chromedome/Rewind relationship has been one of the more interesting and surprising elements of the recent series. Plus, at least there we got a death with meaningful story consequences.

MrBlack wrote:Well, the "Cybertron is uninhabitable" bit is behind us now in any event. It was useful to get the characters to Earth in the first place, but I'm enjoying the stories much more now that they're space-focused.

I wouldn't say the deaths are motivated by a writer disliking a character. I wouldn't say John Barber disliked Wheeljack given how much he used the character in RiD. Most of the other deaths so far have been Z-list cannon-fodder who never had much of a personality anyway (is anyone really upset that Triggerhappy is dead? Pipes?). In any event, these are the Transformers we're talking about: a good coat of paint and you can fix almost anyone. Two of the major deaths in the IDW-verse, Sunstreaker and Ironhide, have already been reversed, and the coming story involving Shockwave promises to reverse a few more deaths.

I like Arcee. Female Cybertronians make no sense given that the whole race is genderless anyway. Arcee being one of Jhiaxus' freak experiments is a good in-continuity explanation for her existence, and I like her much more as a psychotic killing machine versus a useless wallflower.

On a related note, the Chromedome/Rewind relationship has been one of the more interesting and surprising elements of the recent series. Plus, at least there we got a death with meaningful story consequences.

I'm glad it's over, but I found the classic answer to their being on Earth worked, so...

I will never forgive the death of Pipes! NEVER! HERALD MODE ON! It's hard to be sure with some as to if the death is motivated by dislike or not, so I thought I'd cover it anyway because as it is, he did kill of Wheeljack. I don't think I'd kill off him or any character I liked. The minor characters I don't mind but the stuff with Wheeljack and Prowl has not sat well with me. It will be nice should they be reversed as those others were. The Shockwave story is a good one so far. Very interesting.

I hate the freak experiment call. Given the noted Chromedome/Rewind relationship, not having females makes no sense. As it is, how sexist that all are male and in a sense all gay then. My favorite take on Arcee is the Transformers Prime one as I think it balances between the one you like and the classic (boring) one.

Ultimately, I find the deaths to be pointless if they get retconned out and really just a cheap dramatic. So no, I see it as that if you are going to kill one, it has to be a very valid one for the story and has to stay permanent. It's really just sloppy writing. As to answering the question on this is a war... if they can survive a war over millions of years.... they should be damn hard to kill off period. Good guy or bad guy. The creators built that in... they cornered themselves with it as a result. IMO.

"Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They're scientific instruments, not water pistols.""Oh, the pointing again! They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?""Are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about?"""Timey" what? "Timey wimey"?"

IvCNuB4 wrote:The Old Doctor is Cat-Scratch ?Well that explains a lot :lol:

BubbaKanoosh wrote:Old Doctor is the NuDCU's Catscratch

io9 wrote:What We Learned From Obsessively Studying The New Suicide Squad Footage - Toronto is a dark and dangerous place, full of menace.

I come at this more from a toy perspective than a certain continuity perspective (though I followed the Marvel Comics continuity more than, say, the cartoon show) and Pipes was one awesome little toy. He was just fun to transform, had a very cool look, and his arms looked like cannons. I was happy to see him featuring in MTMTE and sad to see him go.

Since I DO like the Marvel Comics, I have no problem with an absence of female Transformers. In the cartoon, most of them showed up for, like, one episode, paired off with a particular "boy" Autobot, and then was never seen again. Except for Arcee who DID have her moments to shine. I like the idea that Transformers might associate with a particular gender and they DO look and act a lot like humans in a lot of ways but I also like it when the stories show us how they DIFFER from humanity. This is a race of giant robots. They don't procreate like humans. They have no actual NEED for gender. The Chromedome/Rewind pairing shows that they DO have a need for companionship, love, and monogamous relationships but this isn't for the purpose of procreation. So no gender is actually needed. Chromedome isn't ACTUALLY male. Rewind isn't ACTUALLY male. They're basically giant robot Smurfs and Arcee is the female introduced by Gargamel.

Except I doubt we'll ever see Handy and Brawny go on a date. And Arcee is a sociopath.

I also don't think Arcee was the only female Transformer that Jiaxus created. We've seen others in background shots and I'm willing to bet they actually EXIST instead of being written out of continuity. They just have either been destroyed during the war, are still out on the edges of the universe, or just haven't been featured. The Transformers never actually gave much thought to Arcee's gender, after all. It was only when she pointed out that they all called her "she" that they even became consciously aware of her differences. So TF's don't place a lot of importance on this sort of thing.

fieldy snuts wrote:i don't either, when written well shockwave is a great antagonist. as for soundwave, wasnt he exiled with the other decpeticons? he was the one who told megatron shockwave had gone missing.

Oh that's right. He so vanished though on the field of battle when things went down. I checked out the Shockwave issue aka RID #17 (really more a hidden spotlight). That was really really good.

sdsichero wrote:I especially like and admire Zechs. He's everything I wish I could be!

MrBlack wrote:Given the recent revelation about how Ore 14 works, I would not be surprised to see Wheeljack back very soon.

As long as he comes back and not as the movie version, I shall be content.

Also... this thread went somewhere no one would have dared.

Smurfs = Transformers.

The Smurfies will be livid with us. Maybe Jude Terror Afro Livid.

"Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They're scientific instruments, not water pistols.""Oh, the pointing again! They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?""Are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about?"""Timey" what? "Timey wimey"?"

IvCNuB4 wrote:The Old Doctor is Cat-Scratch ?Well that explains a lot :lol:

BubbaKanoosh wrote:Old Doctor is the NuDCU's Catscratch

io9 wrote:What We Learned From Obsessively Studying The New Suicide Squad Footage - Toronto is a dark and dangerous place, full of menace.

And there they are... coming down the pipe of the internet to kill us all. Let's circle Punchy, Jubilee, Herald and Spektre along with Jude. They can take the brunt while the rest of us hide.

"Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They're scientific instruments, not water pistols.""Oh, the pointing again! They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?""Are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about?"""Timey" what? "Timey wimey"?"

IvCNuB4 wrote:The Old Doctor is Cat-Scratch ?Well that explains a lot :lol:

BubbaKanoosh wrote:Old Doctor is the NuDCU's Catscratch

io9 wrote:What We Learned From Obsessively Studying The New Suicide Squad Footage - Toronto is a dark and dangerous place, full of menace.

I can't even remember why I'm supposed to hate that one. I think it had something to do with brainwashing carwashes?

I never actually read that one when I was a kid and only first read it when IDW reprinted it. There's a chunk of TF comics from the twenties to about thirty-four or so that I never read as a kid for whatever reason.

But Ratchet versus Megatron? Finding the Dinobots in the Savage Land? Blaster and Goldbug versus Grimlock? Scraplets? Headmasters? The Underbase Saga? That was fun stuff.

One comic I have never read is the one right after Prime was revived as a Powermaster. I think there's a space roller coaster involved. Someday, I'll buy the reprint.